Review: Leeds Opera Festival, The Operas of Gustav Holst, Morley Town Hall, 28th August 2021

NORTHERN Opera Group’s Leeds Opera Festivals have earned acclaim for staging rarities from composers largely ignored by opera companies.

Thomas Arne’s Alfred, Stanford’s Much Ado About Nothing, Yiu’s the Original Chinese Conjuror, and Saint-Saëns the Yellow Princess have all been produced under the bold artistic leadership of David Ward.

This summer’s lifting of restrictions signalled the Festival’s return, with enthusiastic live audiences, to the ornate shoe box shaped auditorium of Morley Town Hall for a trio of Gustav Holst’s one-act operas.

An enthralling evening opened with the Wandering Scholar. This energetic piece, directed by Jim Osman with quirky cartoon designs by Rachel Rea, has toured seven festival venues in Leeds. An accomplished young cast in spooky white-face make-up included Aidan Edwards as Louis, Juliet Montgomery as Alison, Eugene Dillon-Hooper as Father Philippe and Roger Paterson as the mysterious Scholar. David Ward (clarinet) and Mia Scott (violin) supplied the atmospheric instrumental backdrop.

Savitri Reimagined, composed by Sarah Sayeed to a libretto by Jaspreet Kair, was premiered on this occasion as a precursor to Holst’s opera in order to bring a South Asian perspective to the imaginings of a western composer.

Holst had based his opera Savitri on a story ‘borrowed’ from the Sanscript epic text Mahā Bhārata. Death, sung by the bass Julian Close, calls to Savitri, the soprano Meeta Raval, that he is coming for her young husband Satyavan, the tenor Kamil Bien. Leeds Opera Festival’s staged production directed by Emma Black and designed by George Johnson-Leigh conjured up an atmosphere that felt authentic. The textural richness of Holst’s score was superbly projected by the three principals, a chorus placed in the balcony, and Skipton Camerata conducted by Lewis Gaston.

Shakespeare’s King Henry lV was the source of Holst’s libretto for At the Boar’s Head. The tetchy relationship between Prince Hal - a clarion performance from tenor Joseph Doody - and notorious drunkard and womaniser Sir John Falstaff -a colourful, larger than life portrayal by bass-baritone Andrew Slater - is the focus of the action. Black’s direction and Johnson-Leigh’s designs capture the bawdy tavern atmosphere in which the ale freely flows. The eleven soloists are vocally well matched and Holst’s ebullient orchestral score brought to life by Skipton Camerata with Lewis Gaston at the helm. A joyous conclusion to a unique musical meeting.